Archive for television

1. I’m still impressed by how this show is showing the moral complications of vigilantism, even when it’s against organized crime, without offering any easy solutions. Matt even makes a speech about morality in court. This episode goes along well with 1.2 in its thematic depth.

2. I think they might be trying to have at least one or two gross-out moments per episode. Because it’s Netflix, and they can? You could tell the same stories with less brutality and gore. The violence is viscerally (sorry!) effective, however, at least on me.

3. Karen Page is getting a better role than I had hoped she would get. But I still fear for what will become of her later on.

4. There’s a nice continuity touch at one point – Matt bleeds on his white shirt, and when he shows up again, he’s wearing a pale blue one.

5. Wilson Fisk appears at the end of the episode, and he has a single, creepy line that made me shudder.

Episode Four:

This episode continues with the themes of collateral damage from both crime and vigilantism, and violence to the body reflecting societal imbalances. It’s most notable for the first real appearance of The Kingpin/Wilson Fisk, who until now has been only a voice and an extending web of coercion through his amanuensis/deputy Wesley.

1. Wilson Fisk begins his courtship of Vanessa and reveals the first hints of his origin story, which parallels Daredevil’s in that they were both born in Hell’s Kitchen and, now, are trying to remake it. The difference is that Fisk left at age 11 and returned as an adult; I suspect there is more to that story than the bare facts he imparts to Vanessa. For most of the episode, he seems to be speaking through clenched jaws, with hints of introversion and social disorder that he is rigidly controlling at all times.

At the episode’s end, however, Fisk’s inner rage and violence is physically expressed when he brutally, gruesomely kills one of the Russian mobster brothers and beheads his body with a car door. We’re given two reasons for this murder: first, the victim interrupted Fisk’s dinner, his first date, with Vanessa, which offended Fisk and perhaps scared Vanessa away from him; and second, Fisk wishes to provoke a war with the victim’s brother and his crime syndicate, presumably as a first step in taking over all the various ethnic syndicates in Hell’s Kitchen.

2. The Russian brothers themselves are shown to perpetrate violence on a regular basis. First, they escape from a Russian prison using shivs made from the ribs of their dead brother. Later, to bring their enforcer out of a coma caused by Daredevil, they puncture his heart with a huge syringe of epinephrine. The enforcer’s last words give them a hint that Claire might be a lead to Daredevil, who is still only referred to as “the man in the mask.” Their enforcers beat and threaten Santino, the kid who saw Daredevil get tossed into a dumpster in episode 2, in order to locate Claire’s hiding place; then Claire is kidnapped, beaten, and threatened with death via baseball bat.

3. Interestingly, we don’t see much violence from Daredevil himself in this episode. He does a parkour climb to get into Claire’s temporary apartment, but when he takes down her captors, he does so in the dark. We only see him dislocate/break the arm of the enforcer who’d been threatening Claire. Then, in a reversal of their previous roles, he tends to her injuries and offers her his real name, Matthew.

4. Meanwhile, Karen Page has convinced Ben Urich to investigate her former employers, a trail which I presume will lead him Wilson Fisk. This is putting yourself at risk just as Matt puts himself at risk, once again reinforcing the idea that vigilantism has consequences.

Additional Spoiler:
I’ve been spoiled for later episodes – apparently Ben Urich is killed – but given that he’s such a long-running and important character in comics canon, for now I’m going to assume he fakes his death in some way. I guess I’ll find out for sure in Season 2.

I was a big Daredevil fan for a while in the 1980s, picking it up at the Elektra issues somewhere in the 160s and reading on to some point in the 250s. A big part of that time period was dominated by Frank Miller, if that helps you to orient. Packed away somewhere, I have a copy of issue 200 with the cover autographed by Frank Miller, though his pen didn’t work all that well. A sharpie would have been better.

I chose the comic because I wanted to closely follow something else besides X-Men, and I happened to find several back issues at once, on one of those revolving racks at the drugstore, one Sunday night. They were a little bent from the rack, but I decided not to mind; this was to read, not collect. I liked the art: Daredevil’s lean, clean lines, and the acrobatic style of his fighting. I was intrigued by the dramatic Elektra covers.

At that point in my life, I had never been farther north than Washington, D.C., so New York City might as well have been a myth. For that reason, to me the show does not have to relate to the Real New York. It’s in Comicslandia, where Hell’s Kitchen never turned into Gentrificationlandia.

I haven’t read the comic in decades. I do want to read the Brian Michael Bendis run at some point. Anyway, now you know why I wanted to be sure and watch the Netflix adaptation. Which I will finally get to discussing now!

I’ve been watching episodes with longish intervals in between, to give me time to write them up. Unless I state otherwise, each episode’s commentary was written a day or so after watching it, with as few spoilers for future episodes as possible.

Episode One:

1. I am going to allow them to handwave legal issues. I am not a lawyer at all, and even I know…well, anyway. “Innocent clients”?! Never mind. Nope. That is not the point of this show. Daredevil beating up bad guys is the point of this show.

2. The criminal gangs are somewhat diverse. The villains include: two white guys who speak standard TV English; one elderly Chinese woman who speaks Mandarin; one Japanese guy (Daredevil comics canon has ninjas, so maybe they’re his?); and two Eastern Europeans who are also white guys but have heavy accents – the Balkans are mentioned, but maybe they are supposed to be Russian mafia, since that’s the cliche of the moment. No Hispanic gang, and no black gang, at least not yet, though one black guy appears to be employed by the Russians.

3. The female gangleader is the only female character in the episode who does not become a victim in one way or another. Karen Page has been an active character so far, but has also been acted upon. The comic was terrible for killing off women, so I don’t have high hopes in this regard.

4. I like the actors, though I want to reach through the screen and wash Foggy’s hair and give him a haircut. Also, I thought Charlie Cox was faking his American accent. (I checked, he is – he’s faking it well, though.)

5. Where in the world did Matt and Foggy get the money for an office, if they have had no clients? A grant? Did Matt’s dad sue the chemical company after Matt’s childhood accident and put the money in trust?

6. The blind person stuff could be a lot worse? I liked that Foggy and Matt’s long friendship is partly shown by him telling Matt about visual body language cues if that’s needed, without needing to be asked.

7. Kingpin (Wilson Fisk) has not yet appeared except as a voice from the front seat of a car. His right hand man, though, was nicely evil and the actor has a terrific movie-trailer voice. Kingpin could be a way to tie this show into the new version of Spiderman set for the movies, as well.

8. Innocents suffering at the hands of big money/crime, I can tell, is going to be a big part of this show, which thematically harks back to the comic I remember. There’s more rage from Daredevil than in the comic, though.

9. There’s been no mention of Stick so far (Matt’s mentor). But I liked how, at the end of the episode, Matt is shown boxing in an empty gym, a connection to his father’s career.

10. The fight scenes are terrific. I like fight scenes, and these are beautifully choreographed and filmed examples. They are brutal at times, so be warned if you abhor tv violence.

Episode Two:

I found episode two much more gripping than episode one, probably because all of it was character-building, including the final, stumbling, exhausted fight scene.

1. Rosario Dawson as Claire was terrific. Her scenes with Charlie Cox absolutely thrummed with tension on several levels. I will be extremely sad if this character doesn’t come back at some point, especially since superheroes definitely need their own medic. What a great way to use the Night Nurse character from Marvel comics!

2. This episode explored side effects and consequences of vigilantism. Though the most obvious was the physical suffering Daredevil endured from being ambushed, there’s also his somewhat unconvincing assertion that he enjoys violence, Claire’s ennumeration of injuries he’s inflicted that have passed through her emergency room, and the uncomfortable notion of violence begetting even more violence.

3. The flashback plot to Matt’s father, the boxer, being repeatedly pounded in the ring to support his son resonated with the A plot in complex ways. Battlin’ Jack is ground down by endless defeats in life, and the choice he ultimately makes, though it saves his soul, leaves Matt without a father. Which is worse: a dead father who scored a final victory, or a living father, who will continue to fail but still be around to provide love to his son? I think the latter course is far more difficult and rewarding, but perhaps Jack just had nothing left to give. Or: Jack wanted his son to be proud of him, and took the dramatic course to achieve that, but I think his final victory was more for himself than for his son. Matt already was proud of his father, and his hope for the future had not yet been crushed.

4. Foggy and Karen were absolutely adorable together. I still want to make Foggy wash his hair, though.

5. I wonder if the money Jack won actually made it to Matt, eventually? Or did the Irish mobsters track it down and steal it? Is that how Matt and Foggy afford an office?

“You are being watched. The government has a secret system: a machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know, because I built it. I designed the machine to detect acts of terror, but it sees everything. Violent crimes involving ordinary people; people like you. Crimes the government considered ‘irrelevant’. They wouldn’t act, so I decided I would. But I needed a partner, someone with the skills to intervene. Hunted by the authorities, we work in secret. You’ll never find us, but victim or perpetrator, if your number’s up… we’ll find you”.

I am not sure who originated the idea that the tv show Person of Interest features Batman, if Batman and Bruce Wayne were two separate people, but it’s brilliantly accurate. The “muscle” character, John Reese, even wears a costume, in this case a business suit, but the authorities repeatedly refer to him as “The Man in the Suit.” “Suit” has often been used in comics to refer to a costume, as well. Meanwhile, Finch apparently has limitless monetary resources and access to vast stores of information through his skill with computers. Both men are possessed of the requisite angstful past and doomed romantic relationships.

There’s a female villain, the hacker Root (Amy Acker), who is clearly a superhero-type antagonist with vast power and ruthlessness. Zoe Morgan (Paige Turco), a “fixer” who appears several times, is also a superhero, in her ability to resolve tricky situations or provide vital information. There’s one episode with a young boy who draws Reese as a superhero. Late in the second season, Shaw (Sarah Shahi) is a character with an almost-superhuman ability to escape deadly situations, even going so far as to dig a bullet out of her own abdomen with a razor blade.

Reese (Jim Caviezel) doesn’t have a cape or a mask, but the actor’s performance bears resemblances to Christian Bale’s recent take on the Batman, with an even greater lack of affect, presumably resulting from Reese’s tortured past as a CIA operative and assassin. Caviezel is good at portraying a sort of squinty, generalized suffering when appropriate, but he rarely shows emotion, instead fighting his way through most situations. Also, he is good at seeming threatening in a scary way (because of the lack of affect). He always seems to be talking quietly, reminding me quite a lot of Bale’s hoarse Batman whisper.

While Finch (Michael Emerson) also frequently demonstrates lack of affect, he is much more likely to let emotion slip, and seems to find it much easier to fit in with the rest of the world. He usually seems polite and inoffensive, and though he dislikes violence, he feels free to invade privacy and use his money to accomplish his goals.

There are two secondary characters in the first season, both police. Joss Carter (Taraji P. Henson) is my favorite character. She’s a “lawful good” character (I never played D&D, but I learned the basics), but that doesn’t make her boring. I love how smart she is, and how ruthless in her pursuit of law, and how she has to negotiate her own morals with the ambiguity of what Finch and Reese are doing and whether or not she should help them, as the series progresses. I also love that she was military, and a skilled interrogator, and a lawyer, and is just overall awesome.

Lionel Fusco (Kevin Chapman) is a “bent” cop who’s subverted by Reese for his own purposes. In contrast to Carter, I would call him “chaotic good” based on his current actions; he’s trying to be a better person, but also must act in his own interest to protect himself and, by extension, the people he is trying to protect. It interests me that we don’t know why he first became a “bad cop.”

Government surveillance always underlies the plot. Finch’s invention of “The Machine” after 9/11/2001 motivates all of his actions thereafter, and he and Reese rely on surveillance, cloning of cell phones, and the like, to help people. Despite lip service being paid to how invasive all this is, the action all shows the results as being helpful to individuals. The superhero treatment, in this environment, feels like a sleight-of-hand distraction from how we are really being watched, in real life.

I recently finished watching Garrow’s Law, Series One.
The series is a little bit like Law and Order: Georgian England, with Andrew Buchan in the lead role. It’s about William Garrow, a real historical figure, and how he changed how the accused were defended in court. He’s best known because he first introduced “innocent until proven guilty.” The cases used were drawn from real cases tried at the Old Bailey. The crimes themselves are very similar to crimes of today; the difference is in the way the trials are argued, and the severe punishments meted out for what, to us, are minor crimes. For example, thievery can be punished by hanging, while assault was a misdemeanor.

I enjoy the plots but I’m really in it for the costumes, costumes, costumes. Wigs! Men in heels!

My favorite character is Sir Arthur, played by Rupert Graves (pictured, in wig). Sir Arthur has things he wants that he isn’t getting, and he demonstrates regrets and petty triumphs and, well, he’s complex; I want to know what he will do next. His relationship with his wife, Lady Sarah (Lyndsey Marshall), has a lot of intriguing angles; he appears to love her, but does not entirely trust her all the time in a way that seems part jealousy of Garrow and her other interests (court cases) and part “Why are you against my ideals (such as they are)?”

I am not terribly into the (platonic, so far) romance between Lady Sarah and Garrow, which gets more screen time than anything else she does. I think I would like Sarah more if she wasn’t interested in Garrow romantically at all. Why must there always be romance, or thwarted romance? Why can’t the female lead have other needs and desires?

Garrow (Andrew Buchan) is the protagonist, but he’s also young and arrogant. Though I find him entertaining, he’s less interesting to me. We know he’s ultimately going to win; even when he loses, he learns valuable lessons that he will later apply to winning. For that reason, his mistakes draw me in less than Sir Arthur’s.

I could watch Alun Armstrong as Southouse, Garrow’s mentor, all day. What a splendid actor.

I also like Silvester (Aidan McArdle), generally Garrow’s opponent in court. Their relationship is all pointed banter, and they even have a duel! I can’t fault the character for being snarky at Garrow because the things he’s snarky about are generally true. Garrow’s going to win in the end, but he doesn’t have to be quite so annoying about it, does he?

I’m looking forward to series two. I know it’s based on historical events, but no spoilers for second series in comments, please – I know it bothers some people, and I’d like to be nice about it.

Thank you, Vickie, for inviting me to be your guest. I’m thrilled to be here, even if only virtually.

I know readers and aspiring authors like to hear how published authors got started. (I know this because I’ve been both! Yes, and I’m still a reader.) I’m happy to tell you my (semi-goofy) story.I didn’t start out to be a writer. Actually, I’m an engineer. One fateful night, I sat down to watch television–it was a cold winter night in Alaska, so it seemed like the thing to do–and I caught the first episode of “Forever Knight.” Yow! Talk about a show before its time! I was a fan of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, and this show was created just for me. It had all the sexual conflict and darkness with a cast of wonderful Canadian actors. I was hooked. Big time.

This happened in 1992 when the Internet was a new thing. My DH was one of the first people I knew who managed to hook in. As the Net grew, I discovered a group writing fanfiction for Forever Knight (stories that use the show’s characters–the “episodes that were never filmed” concept). I jumped in and started writing. We all shared our stories with others online we’d never meet (or so we thought, but that comes later). When the show was cancelled after three seasons and most of the characters killed off, we all went into mourning. Then a couple dozen of us got together and wrote “Season 4.” It was a blast, and I was picked to write an episode. I can’t remember the name of it at the moment…maybe it’ll come to me. Anyway, each “author” was assigned an editor, and mine turned out to be a real editor from New York. Once we’d finished the episode, she suggested I write a romance novel, so I did. I wish I knew who that editor was. I’d like to thank her.

There’s more to the story–hours of heartache, a hundred or so “dear author” rejection letters, the long, hard road of learning to write a novel, the excitement of selling, etc.–but I won’t go into all the details. I managed to sell some romance novels and a couple of mysteries, and then was asked to try my hand at erotica. “Erotica?” I thought. Hmm. Hot sex, dark alpha characters…vampires! Of course! So I started with the Nathan Cotton series (published by eXtasy Books), then sold some hot, juicy vampires to Aphrodisia (Addicted and Devour Me). I also have a vampire in a Nocturne Bite (“Shadow Lover”) from Silhouette.Maybe because of where I started, I’m a semi-purist when it comes to vampires. I’m not into the Nosferatu kind of vampires, all warty and pointy-eared, but definitely the Nick Knight version. My vampires can’t go out in the sun and they aren’t part-anything-else. A stake through the heart definitely does them in. And most of them can’t stand garlic. They exist in the normal world, not a fantasy place filled with other super-naturals. One thing they all want is human blood, and it’s always a very sexual experience for both vamps and humans when they take it. I just love the angst-ridden vampire image, even if he isn’t always full of angst. It’s all about the Hunger.

My latest story out from Nocturne Bites, “Marked” – which is available right now on eHarlequin.com – isn’t about a vampire, but a shape-shifter. It’s set in New Mexico and has a Native American flavor (thanks to a good friend who agreed to be my advisor). I really like the story. Maybe because it, too, has the hunger factor. He doesn’t want to drink her blood…he just WANTS HER!

What I’ve realized about vampire (or shape-shifter) erotica is that it’s no different than any other writing. If there’s no conflict, it isn’t interesting for me as either an author or a reader. I’m not saying that reading hot sex isn’t fun, it’s just that I can’t read 200 pages of hot sex without a good story in there, too. Vampires present an automatic element of conflict; he wants her but he might kill her if he gives in to his desires. That’s pretty strong conflict. However, if you can give the conflict a twist, you’ll have a much stronger story. He’s a vampire…if he takes her, he loses his only chance to see the sunlight again…she’s actually a vampire hunter…she thinks he killed her father…get creative! What’s the worst thing that could happen to him? The answer should be “her.” Romance is a great basis for erotica, with or without vampires.

Oh, and I promised you the rest of the story. For my 39th birthday (I’m not telling you how long ago it was, but the photos are fading), I got to meet my favorite vampire: Geraint Wyn Davies who played Nick Knight. What a hunk, and an absolutely fabulous person! A good friend and I went to a crazy weekend event with 80 women and Ger. I must admit, I had a blast, but it was kind of a strange thing to do. Several of us got together to swap stories about what we’d told our friends and family we were spending the weekend doing: business meeting, friend’s wedding, therapy. Too funny. Anyway, I met a bunch of the people I’d been sharing fanfiction with. I even got to sign a few stories–my first autographs! I’ll always remember that weekend more than just a little fondly.

One thing I got from that event was an important lesson: know that the people reading what you’re writing are real, they’re out there somewhere, and you just might meet them! [toothy grin with fangs]

If you want to find out about any of my vamps or other creatures, please visit my website. I love to hear from readers!

Thank you again, Vickie! [hugs]

“He was brought across in 1228…preyed on humans for their blood…”

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Thanks, Lydia!

Any other fans of television vampires out there? And do they inspire you to write?

This is the first post in a little Vampire Blogging Festival I’m hosting. My upcoming guests include:

Today I’m going to recommend some violent and also hot space opera babes. Traditionally, these are done as top fives, so that’s what I did.

1. Princess Leia, Star Wars. Like, duh. I think she was the hottest in her bounty hunter costume in Return of the Jedi. Quote: “I don’t know where you get your delusions, laser brain.”2. Aeryn Sun, Farscape. Not only hot, but tough. Much more a warrior than her eventual paramour, scientist John Crichton. She even gives birth in the middle of a firefight. Quote: “Shooting makes me feel better.”

4. Starbuck, Battlestar Galactica. The female one. Okay, so I haven’t watched the later seasons yet. But in the earlier seasons, she is amazingly hot and also a total rake. I would buy her in any historical romance. Especially hot in her military undershirt. Quote: “Me in a dress is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

5. Ellen Ripley, Aliens. The second movie is the best. Hard, gritty, nonstop, and she makes the hard decisions. Especially hot when shooting evil aliens. Quote: “I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. That’s the only way to be sure.”

I recently completed the second draft of a novel about a soap opera actress in mid-1970s New York City who’s haunted by the ghost of her best friend who died protesting the Vietnam War. (The working title of the book is Some Misplaced Joan of Arc, but through the writing process I’ve mostly referred to it as “the Jo book.”) I already knew a lot about soap operas and the ’60s-’70s anti-war movement before I began writing, and I’m not sure I realized just how much research I would need to do.

I was ten years old in 1975, and in some respects I remember the time period very well. Yet it is in many ways a different world (not to mention the fact that I spent that time in Los Angeles, not New York). When I was writing a scene in which my protagonist Jo goes to see the newly released Dog Day Afternoon, I assumed she could go to her neighborhood movie house–but research revealed that the film only screened in one (now defunct) Manhattan movie theater when it first opened: Cinema 1. A friend of mine with access to newspaper archives even found me a New York Times ad for Dog Day Afternoon that included showtimes! Cinema Treasures, an online guide to classic movie theaters, provided a lot of info on Cinema 1.A number of historical events are referenced in my novel, notably the arrest and trial of Patty Hearst. The book Patty’s Got a Gun: Patricia Hearst in 1970s America and the documentary film Guerrilla – The Taking of Patty Hearst were excellent resources on the media’s portrayal of the Hearst case. Again, my friend with access to newspaper archives helped me with specific news items, and I was amazed to learn that the New York Times headline for Patty Hearst’s guilty verdict was: “MISS HEARST IS CONVICTED ON BANK ROBBERY CHARGES.” I made frequent use of The Vanderbilt Television News Archive, which contains detailed descriptions of U.S. national network news broadcasts–including commercials–going back to 1968. For information about the movement against the Vietnam War, as well as other political activism of the ’60s-’70s, Cathy Wilkerson’s Flying Close to the Sun: My Life and Times as a Weatherman and Dan Berger’s Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity were useful, as were the documentaries Rebels With a Cause and The Weather Underground.

As for the soap opera aspect of my novel, 1970s daytime dramas were produced in a very different way than they are today. Fortunately my friends Lara Parker (who played Angelique on Dark Shadows) and Rory Metcalf (who wrote for Ryan’s Hope) answered my questions, as did Peter White, who played Linc on All My Children at just the time period of my novel. I also consulted biographies of soap opera actors and soap opera reference books, as well as Eight Years in Another World (a wonderful memoir by former Another World head writer Harding Lemay) and We Love Soaps, a great source of interviews and archival material.A number of soap opera actresses have penned soap opera murder mysteries, from which I gleaned some behind-the-scenes information amid the dropping corpses. Books in this little subgenre include Louise Shaffer’s All My Suspects and Eileen Davidson’s Death in Daytime and Dial Emmy for Murder.

The other sources I used for Jo book research are too numerous to mention, but a few highlights include a 1976 NYC TV Guide, the 1975-76 Trans World Getaway Guide to NYC, the Mr. Pop Culture week by week archives, and a webpage of ’70s toiletries advertisements, Stuck in the 70s. Sometimes a tiny, half-forgotten detail, like Love’s Baby Soft or Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific, can help bring a scene–and the time period of a novel–to life.

Gwynne Garfinkle lives in Los Angeles. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Strange Horizons, Goblin Fruit, Aberrant Dreams, Space & Time, and the Clockwork Jungle Book issue of Shimmer. She is represented by Diana Fox of Fox Literary.

When Tanya Huff’s vampire novels were made into a television series, Blood Ties, the original novels were re-released. The first time I read those books, I’d borrowed them from a friend. This time, I bought my own copies, since I was in the mood to reread them.(This post is not about that television show, but I thought a visual of one of the show’s leads might interest some of you.)

What interested me most about the reissued novels was in Tanya Huff’s introduction. She noted that when the books were originally published, cell phones were not at all common. There were several plot incidents in the books that would have gone quite differently if the characters had been able to call each other!

When I think of plot and cell phones, the first show that pops into my mind is always The X-Files. Mulder and Scully were nearly glued to their phones, often exchanging huge chunks of dialogue while at widely-separated locations. In that case, cell phones became part of the world in which they operated, and integral parts of the story. Mulder and Scully with their cell phones also became part of the visual language of the show.I think it’s a little trickier to integrate cell phones with novels. For one thing, a phone conversation requires extra writing decisions, such as how much to reveal of the “other” side of the conversation, how to include sensual details in among the dialogue, etc.. But much more importantly, how many plots would evaporate if the characters could only call someone for help? Not to mention all the thousands of applications that now go along with cell phones? If the characters need to be without their cell phones for something to happen, is it now obligatory to spend words on working in a reason? (I can’t help but be reminded of all the transporter issues they had to come up with in Star Trek.)

I can think of three approaches one could use. The first is to remove the cell phone at the point of action: heroine drops her cell out of the helicopter, the werewolf eats the hero’s cell phone, the hero who’s been using his cell as a GPS for days runs out of power at a critical moment. The second is to set up the lack of cell phone earlier in the story, which of course one can do by backtracking in one’s manuscript to create foreshadowing (your key to quality literature!). For instance, the heroine despises cell phones because she doesn’t like people calling her while she’s browsing in libraries, or the hero’s magical powers interfere with technology. The third is to have the character use the cell phone, but it isn’t any help – he gets voicemail when being attacked by a zombie, or she doesn’t have the phone number she needs.

No, wait, there’s a fourth option: no cell phones at all. But that’s a worldbuilding decision that will have a whole host of subsidiary effects.

Rather than summarize the British dark comedy series Blackadder Goes Forth for those who’ve never seen the series, I’ll provide a link to the detailed Wikipedia page. It’s set on the Western Front in 1917, and starred Rowan Atkinson. A comedy set in the trenches? Why, yes. It does work.

Fans of the American television show House, M.D. should note that its star, Hugh Laurie, played Lieutenant George in Blackadder Goes Forth.I was already interested in World War One (probably from reading too many Peter Winsey mysteries) when this series aired, but the events explored and parodied in this show cemented my interest, and three or four years later I began to research the period seriously.

Every episode criticized the British High Command’s methods of pursuing the war; other episodes addressed the limited lifespans of military airplane pilots, the desperate lengths to which soldiers would go for entertainment, and bizarre plans for escaping the trenches from which, even in the final episode, there was no real escape. Throughout, there’s a strong message of peace, and despite the dark events, that’s what makes me continue to enjoy it.Melchett: Field Marshal Haig has formulated a brilliant new tactical plan to ensure final victory in the field.Blackadder: Ah. Would this brilliant plan involve us climbing out of our trenches and walking very slowly towards the enemy?Captain Darling: How could you possibly know that, Blackadder? It’s classified information!Blackadder: It’s the same plan that we used last time and the seventeen times before that.Melchett: Exactly! And that is what is so brilliant about it! It will catch the watchful Hun totally off guard! Doing precisely what we’ve done eighteen times before is exactly the last thing they’ll expect us to do this time! There is, however, one small problem.Blackadder: That everyone always gets slaughtered in the first ten seconds.Melchett: That’s right. And Field Marshal Haig is worried this may be depressing the men a tad. So he’s looking for a way to cheer them up.Blackadder: Well, his resignation and suicide seems the obvious choice.Melchett: Hmm, interesting thought. Make a note of it, Darling.

–“Captain Cook”

[Blackadder is informed that a German spy is stealing battle plans]General Melchett: You look surprised, Blackadder.Captain Blackadder: I certainly am, sir. I didn’t realise we had any battle plans.General Melchett: Well, of course we have! How else do you think the battles are directed?Captain Blackadder: Our battles are directed, sir?General Melchett: Well, of course they are, Blackadder, directed according to the Grand Plan.Captain Blackadder: Would that be the plan to continue with total slaughter until everyone’s dead except Field Marshal Haig, Lady Haig and their tortoise, Alan?General Melchett: Great Scott! Even you know it!